Press Digest: Kiev using truce to reinforce; Yatsenyuk forms new party

Sept 11 2014

Oleg Yegorov

special to RBTH

Gazprom logo. Source: ITAR-TASS

RBTH presents a selection of views from leading Russian media on the latest developments in Ukraine, including analysis of Moscow’s objections to the wording of Ukraine’s EU association agreement, the formation of a new Ukrainian political party, and a speech made by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on September 10.

Poland halted reverse supplies of gas to Ukraine on
September 10, a move attributed by the Kommersant daily to Russian policy. As a
result of slightly cooler weather, the Polish authorities requested an increase
in gas supplies from Gazprom; however, the Russian gas giant refused to provide
extra fuel, citing the need to pump gas into Russian underground storage
facilities. In the end, Poland was forced to use the gas for its own needs,
instead of sending it to Ukraine. Now, “reverse gas to Ukraine from Poland is
in jeopardy.”

According to Alexei Grivach, a representative of the
Russian National Energy Security Fund, Gazprom’s policy simultaneously
heightens pressure on the Ukrainians while demonstrating to the European Union
that the important gas issue has yet to be resolved.

Official delegates from Ukraine, Russia, and the EU are
scheduled to meet in Brussels on Friday, September 12, where
they will discuss the terms of Ukraine’s association with the EU. Nezavisimaya
Gazeta reports that Moscow, displeased with the current wording of the association
agreement, has already submitted a long list of desired changes to Kiev.

“Moscow proposes excluding more than 2,300 categories of
goods from free trade between Europe and Ukraine,” the publication writes. In
Russia’s opinion, Ukraine should keep customs duties on those goods. The
Russian authorities think that the current version of the agreement poses
economic threats to Russia and the entire market of the Customs Union. By
receiving duty-free goods from Europe and simultaneously taking advantage of
the free trade regime within the CIS, Ukraine will be able to flood the Customs
Union with cheap European goods, which would inflict a painful blow to the
economies of the Customs Union states. In order to avoid this, Russia is
threatening to cancel the free trade regime for Ukraine.

Commenting on the situation for Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Alexei
Portansky, a leading research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and
International Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that Russia’s
list of 2,300 types of goods “is aimed not so much at shielding the domestic
market from unwanted re-exports as it is at delaying the negotiations on
Ukraine’s association with the EU.” In his opinion, Russia is not expecting
Kiev to acquiesce and accept what is a rather lengthy list of goods excluded
from the future free trade regime with Europe. Rather, it is striving to slow
down Ukraine’s migration towards the EU as much as possible.

Gazeta.ru analyzes the establishment of a new political
party in Ukraine: the People’s Front, headed by Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk. Besides Yatsenyuk, the People’s Front Party counts other famous
Ukrainian politicians among its ranks, including Verkhovna Rada speaker
Oleksandr Turchynov, several ministers from the Yatsenyuk government,
commanders of volunteer battalions that fought in the Donbass, and Maidan
heroes.

Director of the Kiev Institute of Global Strategy Vadim
Karasev is convinced that “this is the party of the Cabinet of Ministers,” in
competition with the president’s party and offering a more radical, more
military agenda, in favor of waging war in the Donbass until Kiev emerges
victorious. Karasev thinks that the decision by Yatsenyuk and his allies to
create this party is evidence of a continuing schism among the politicians who
supported Maidan.

“Maidan formed against Yanukovych, and now other interests
have emerged behind the scenes,” the political scientist said. According to
him, the People’s Front does not anticipate a stunning success at the
parliamentary elections because there are more popular parties, such as the
president’s Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna, and Oleh
Lyashko’s Radical Party.

The newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets analyzes Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko’s speech at a Cabinet of Ministers meeting on
September 10. During his speech, the president said that Ukraine will not “make
any concessions on the question of its territorial integrity” and that it will
remain a unitary state. Poroshenko said that the “line of contact” with the Donetsk
and Lugansk separatists and the border with Russia need to be strengthened.

In the newspaper’s opinion, these statements indicate that
Kiev has no intention of fulfilling the agreement signed in Minsk on September
5, and that it is merely using the ceasefire to transport its troops.
Journalists in south-eastern Ukraine say that there is a grouping near Mariupol
consisting of 300 tanks, 32 of which are imported. Poroshenko himself is not
hiding the fact that troops are being reinforced.

“We, as military men, are guided by one rule: If you want
peace, prepare for war. For us, this period is an opportunity to strengthen in
all areas, from logistics to utilities, which are being built, to strengthen
human resources. For us, the truce is a preparation for potential processes
that could occur as a result of the truce being violated,” Poroshenko said.